Five Bullet Friday (2 February 2019)

An important focus for OCN is accountability and transparency. We also believe strongly in joint and collaborative working. To make it even easier for you to be informed about all the work of OCN our digital lead Alastair has created pages on our website where you will find our 5 Bullet Fridays and an events page. Thank you Alastair for setting this up. If you are finding my e mails too much to digest or the format doesn’t work for you, our website can be a ‘one stop shop’ you can dip in and out of for all your OCN needs.

Also, if there is a specific focus or topic you would like to see in future 5 Bullet Fridays or you have anything you would like me to include then please do let me know (contact details at the foot of this page).

Events Page: https://ourconnectedneighbourhoods.org.uk/events/

5 Bullet Fridays: https://ourconnectedneighbourhoods.org.uk/category/5-bullet-fridays/

OCN, Alzheimer Scotland, CTSI and Ideas for Ears have worked in partnership to hold a relaxed dementia / hearing focused feedback session on NHS and Council next 3 years plans and priorities. The event has been put together at very short notice. We have identified a range of participants through working together. This is an excellent example of collaborative working (even if I do say so myself). Thank you to everyone who has worked on this. All welcome but spaces will be limited due to the venue. I have attached a background and overview I put together I hope people attending will find informative and helpful.

Wednesday 6 February
Henderson’s Bistro
Albert Halls
12:15 – 01:15 (ish)

Dementia is one of the 6 main priorities included in a draft plan. We had hoped for a draft plan but this is not available. The current plan for reference can be found here: https://bit.ly/2W77ROG

In addition to the attached overview, supporting documents will be sent out separately on Monday. If you have any questions or want to find out more please contact Liz Rowlett – Integration Engagement Office liz.rowlett@ctsi.org.uk 01259 213840

What is the role of technology for people living with dementia?

Well, first ask yourself, how do you use technology? How does your friend? And what about your neighbour? That is how technology can be used by people with dementia.

OCN is running a series of 5 Digital Connections workshops in local libraries looking at the meaningful use of today’s technology in areas such as music, communications and daily routines. These relaxed sessions will introduce participants to the simple ways in which they can get started with everyday apps. Maybe learning how to build a playlist on Spotify, make a video call with Skype or give their calendar a digital makeover.

And they’re not just for people living with dementia, the sessions are fully inclusive and suitable for carers or any individual over the age of 50 looking to dip their toe into the calming waters of digital tech.

Central Library Thursday 28th Feb 2.30pm – 4:00pm

St Ninians Library Friday 1st March 10.30am – 12:00pm

Plean Library Thursday 14th March 3:00pm – 4.30pm

Bannockburn Library Friday 15th March 11:00am – 12.30pm

Bridge of Allan Library Friday 29th March 10.30am -12:00pm

The OCN staff team will be having a strategy meeting later this month. We have regular strand leaders meetings to discuss and plan but this strategy meeting will give us more dedicated space to explore ideas and development of the project going forward. We will also benefit from the shared learning from the Our People Our Places Neighbourhood work which recently ended. Volunteer Community Researchers have completed a number of participant surveys, hearing what people’s views, opinions and feelings are about living with dementia. This provided base line evaluation data. Moving forward we plan to re visit participants and have some further relaxed conversations to further explore and determine what issues people have in their local area. These will be recorded in researcher diaries and we will come together to look at any emerging themes or needs. We have already informed, connected and included participants in different ways. Some of these aren’t things we can report on, but OCN is working on a one-to-one basis with a number of participants based on their feedback so far. We are also starting to see clusters start to form where local neighbourhood support can happen. Paralleled to this will be an evaluation process carried out by Alhene who is introduced below. Please also see the update from Dr Kainde Manji – Evaluation Lead below.

Collaborative and joint working is significant growing part or the community development strand. This had led to some fantastic joint work so far, such as Digital Connections and Health and Social Care Plan consultation. There is a big ripple effect happening from OCN and our ever growing partnership group discussed how we might capture some of this at the last meeting. Our next partnership meeting will be on Tuesday 26 February and we look forward to seeing partners there and benefiting from everyone’s input and experience.

OCN would like to welcome and introduce Alhena, a Stirling University PhD student, who will be joining OCN as a research assistant to support some of our evaluation work on the project. Alhena’s first tasks will include setting up partner, staff and volunteer interviews. If you could please check your inbox for doodle polls and requests and get back to Alhena as soon as possible it would be most appreciated. We welcome Alhena to the OCN team and the wider partnership. We look forward to working with you.

We are moving into the next phase of the evaluation of the OCN project, and will be joined by a new member of staff to support this. Alhena Curreri is a PhD student at the University of Stirling, working within Dementia and Ageing, and will be supporting me in the evaluation until April. This phase of the evaluation will involve two focus groups, one with partners and the other with volunteers about their experiences of the project so far. Volunteers will also be conducting individual interviews with OCN Strand Leads about their experiences in the project. The data collected will be brought together with the other evaluation data (evaluation forms, surveys, observations, and volunteer diaries) at an ‘Evaluation Analysis Workshop’ in late March where we will work to identify key messages and learning from the first 18months of the project that will inform what we do in the remaining period. If you have any questions or would like to be involved please contact Kainde kainde.manji@stir.ac.uk or Alhena n.a.curreri1@stir.ac.uk.